Do fighters sometimes deliberately lose? And for what reason?

This lot has been sold, it does not matter, this is not fair!

How often do you not read that bouts are being criticized and that they are sold. For those who do not know what is meant by “sold” let us explain. A sold bout is nothing less than an agreement made between two parties, with the agreement that one of the two loses consciously. This has been happening for centuries and can have different underlying grounds. Take the recent battle between Connor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, which is said to have been sold, but true proof have not been delivered. But caused a flow of rumors.

Why would you want to lose?

There are reasons to mention why a fighter would want to lose. On the one hand, this can be an offer in money, or even that it gives him an advantage in a subsequent fight. In the latter case, taking a so-called “underdog” position, so less favorite is to win. Then you enter the ring and win, reasons, fill in the rooms and pick up the cash register? One could probably say that a fighter would never “lose”, why would you? You want to show that you are the best, or not? But there are often several other reasons to consider!

Politics plays a role

It also happens that bouts are organized in certain countries, where the government has a big finger in the sports, also in sport. One should think about countries with a less democratic appearance than average ones. One would like to see heroes in the fighters, which in turn can be used as an example and advertising item. Innocent behavior or a bad thing?

Friend you’re going down whether you want or not

That some losses are not voluntary is also no secret. Some organizations live in this type of practice, and use it for example to influence betting, also called matchfixing. Extra pressure and threat are then applied, often people are targeted as a goalkeeper if they do not want to work with them. Qualitative and pernicious practices, to put it mildly.

Real life example

We were approached a while ago by a fighter (who wishes to remain anonymous) about the fact that he was asked to lose, he wanted to lose his story because he was sitting with it.

“I was told 30 minutes before the start of my fight that I had to lose consciousness.” “I was scared because my own manager told me this, a man who has been managing me for years and never asked such a question.” “I asked for the reason, if you lose a nice sum of money, more than you would earn by winning.” Although it was mentally against my fighters heart, I decided to go along with the game”. “I had to go down in the second round, if I could not go on, I was hurting in my heart”.”The reason I agreed was that I had some financial problems sounds like a weak excuse I know”.

“I went down and faked to be exhausted, I fell as a loser”. “The day after, my manager he would come along with the big sum of money, which he did, but the sum of money was not that big, he pushed me $ 1,200 into the hands and said good-work man, nobody was suspicious”. “I was flabbergasted and decided never to honor such a request again, and actually I immediately stopped contests”, was it stupid of me? Yes, very stupid, no amount can keep you away from sport in the way”.